AT&T and the Department of Justice have been unable to reach agreement on when a trial should get underway before Judge Ellen Huvelle, as AT&T challenges the department’s attempt to block the company’s $39 billion buy of T-Mobile. AT&T is pushing to have the trial start Jan. 16, according to a status update filed at the court by the Justice Department. DOJ wants a March 19 start.

The adoption of the America’s Broadband Connectivity Plan (ABC Plan) for Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation revamp would drive small rural carriers out of business, several state commissioners said during a FCBA briefing Monday. Meanwhile, all three revamp proposals ignore the role of wireless, industry officials said.

Deals between CBS and its TV station affiliates that pay the network higher fees for programming have been completed smoothly and quietly, but that could change as larger station groups operating in larger markets renew their affiliations to the network, CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said at a Goldman Sachs investor conference Tuesday. “It’s become accepted, and rightly so, that when an affiliate is getting retrans, he’s getting it a lot because of prime time, David Letterman, 60 Minutes, the NCAA Tournament and the NFL,” Moonves said. “The affiliates are on board with that, they get that."

A fresh House bill to reallocate the 700 MHz D-block to public safety has the support of House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y. Rep. Steve Rothman, D-N.J., who serves on the Appropriations Committees, on Tuesday introduced the Help Emergency Responders Operate Emergency Systems (HEROES) Act. Using proceeds from spectrum auctions, the bill would provide $5.5 billion for construction, maintenance and operation of the national public safety network and $400 million to set up a grant program to help first responders upgrade their radios to comply with the FCC’s 2004 narrowband mandate.

A Supreme Court decision on videogames may have limited import for broadcasters in an indecency case before the high court, Entertainment Software Association CEO Michael Gallagher said Tuesday. June’s Brown ruling striking down California’s ban on the sale of violent games to kids may help broadcasters some in the consolidated FCC v. ABC and Fox case, he said. But, because TV stations use public airwaves, the videogames ruling may not foretell a clearcut win for broadcasting, Gallagher said in response to a question from a TV executive at an industry lunch in Washington. Gallagher told us it may take time for the commission to approve ESA’s separate waiver request from disabilities accessibility rules for all videogames.

With broadband availability maps up and running in many states, some are looking at ways to gather other broadband information like pricing, experts told us. But gathering pricing information is a challenge, they said. Meanwhile, several state initiatives are under way to expand the use of broadband data, state officials said.

Net neutrality rules appear likely to take effect ahead of the one-year anniversary of approval by the FCC by a 3-2 vote at its Dec. 21 meeting. But many questions remain, including whether they will survive expected challenges in federal court and a possible stay as the court fight unfolds.

FCC video accessibility committee subgroups continue work with staff of the commission on three forthcoming reports required under last year’s communications disabilities legislation, participants said. They said efforts similar to those between career commission staffers and members of the Video Programming Accessibility Advisory Committee on the panel’s first report on Internet programming, released in July (CD July 15 p1) are underway on the forthcoming reports. The VPAAC reports will cover video description for multichannel video programming distributors and TV stations, user interfaces on consumer electronics and conveying emergency information.

Sprint Nextel is competitive with AT&T and Verizon Wireless, but is challenging AT&T’s buy of T-Mobile because of concerns about protecting the backhaul, roaming and spectrum it needs to stay competitive, said Sprint Senior Vice President Vonya McCann on an episode of C-Span’s The Communicators, which was set to air over the weekend. Sprint filed a legal challenge on top of the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against the merger to make clear its unique concerns with the deal, McCann said. Sprint will seek to have its case combined with DOJ’s case, she said. Meanwhile, attorneys general from seven states announced they are also joining the DOJ case.

Two of the three judges who heard Vermont Public Service Board v. FCC cited the FCC’s plan to revamp the overall Universal Service Fund as they considered Vermont and Maine’s request to fix the FCC’s non-rural high-cost system. In a U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit hearing, judges questioned the use of outdated data by the FCC and the states’ failure to seek a waiver to request supplemental high-cost support. The case stems from a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals remand in the so-called Qwest II case, in which the commission said rural and urban rates “are reasonably comparable.” State regulators have challenged, claiming the FCC “failed to compare rural rates in each state to a national average urban rate.”